No, there Are No Licences 
Required in Anguilla for Doing Business. I cannot believe it. A civil service friend of mine contacted me recently. He had been told that he had to get a business licence to continue to do his photography business. He has a good camera. He tells me that he has been taking photographs for years. He has started to earn some money from his hobby. He does not have a photo studio, just his home. He does not have a sign outside his home advertising that he is doing business from there. He has no studio in his home. All his advertising is by word of mouth. He has got some real lucrative commercial work recently. Word has got back to the Inland Revenue. Someone in his department tapped him on his shoulder and told him that questions were being asked. Did he have a business licence? If he did not get a licence he was going to get in trouble! So, he had gone to Inland Revenue and paid for and obtained the licence. It cost him about US$1,000.00. He has been told he has to renew it annually.
He asked me the question. Did he need a business licence to do what he was doing? The answer is a resounding NO! There is no licence required for doing business as such in
About 20 years ago, Lawyer 
Fred Kelsick tested the law. Fred Kelsick was a St Kitts lawyer. He has died now. He used to come to
You do not have to be a lawyer to see why he threw out the charge and told the police not to harass Mr Kelsick. You only have to be able to read a simple sentence. Section 3 of the Act reads:
Obligation to obtain licence to carry on certain trades, businesses, occupations and professions
3. Every person carrying on any trade, business, occupation or profession set out in the Schedule shall take out an annual licence in accordance with the provisions of this Act in respect of each premises or place where such trade, business, occupation or profession is carried on, and shall only carry on such trade, business, occupation or profession from such premises or place.
It should be obvious. The licence is in respect of “each premises or place where such trade, business, occupation or profession is carried on”. If you set up an office in your home, advertise it, and have customers come to your home to conduct the business, it is arguable that your home is a place of business. But, if you only practice your profession in a public place like a courthouse, and interview your clients under the loblolly tree, then you do not have a place of business that can be licensed. Nor do you have to.
The late Clement Daniels used to have a retail business called Galaxy Shoppe. It had two outlets. One was at Wallblake. He had another branch at The Valley where Brodie runs his retail outlet. He had two places of business. He had to obtain two licences under the Act.
My friend does not have a place of business. What he is doing does not require a place of business. He goes out on assignment to take photographs. He is photographing a wedding at a hotel one day, at an event of one kind of another at a different place the next day. The Act goes on to say that if you do have a licensed place of business, you cannot open additional branches all over the island. If does not say that you cannot carry on a business without having a licensed place of business. Do you think that my friend needs a licence?
Well, do we need an Ombudsman in
I told my civil service friend I hoped he had permission from the Governor to be doing an outside business. But, that is another story.
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